Chapter 426: Crazy and Meticulous Little Barty
The whistling wind roared in their ears, and the colors around them kept spinning, like a dizzy dream. With the help of the portkey, Harry and Crouch kept flying forward.
As his feet landed on the ground, the spinning world came to an abrupt stop and Harry fell to the ground with a thud. His numb body made it impossible for him to keep his balance.
This is a dilapidated courtyard with wild weeds growing wildly and the walls are covered with cracks, which seem like they will collapse with the slightest effort.
In the center of the courtyard, dozens of figures lay quietly, their eyes closed and their faces pale, as if they were dead.
Judging from their clothes, these people are Muggles. Were they killed by Crouch?
Harry's heart sank suddenly. He tried hard to see clearly and found that these people were unconscious, but their chests were still rising and falling slightly, indicating that they were still alive.
Crouch was not idle either. This place was not safe enough and Dumbledore might catch up with him at any time, so the moment he landed, he waved his wand, controlling a large number of portkeys that had been prepared long ago, and accurately touched each Muggle.
In an instant, all the Muggles disappeared, and he controlled Harry to quickly climb over the wall and get into the knight bus that had been waiting there.
With a whoosh, the Knight Bus disappeared from the spot, and in less than ten seconds, the entire courtyard fell completely silent.
Looking at the familiar conductor Stan Shunpike and the bus driver Ern Plan, Harry was a little overwhelmed for a moment.
What's going on? Have these two also joined the mysterious man?
Before he could think of an answer, Crouch's sneer sounded from behind him.
"How does it feel to go from heaven to hell? Harry Potter, the legendary boy who lived. Don't bother looking at these two idiots. They are under my Imperius Curse and won't pay any attention to you."
Crouch, who had completely relaxed, came in front of Harry and stared at him fiercely.
"You should be thankful that your life belongs to the Dark Lord, otherwise I would definitely torture you."
"Are you terrified? After all, you were enjoying everyone's cheers just a moment ago, and you were the glorious champion in everyone's eyes. But now you have become a prisoner whose life is not guaranteed. You will soon experience despair that you have never imagined."
"Hahahaha," Crouch laughed crazily, "Don't think that anyone will come to rescue you, not even Dumbledore. He and those stupid Aurors are probably confused by the traces of so many portkeys."
"I have prepared 45 Muggles in advance. It will be enough to keep them busy for a while. By the time they figure it out, the great Dark Lord has been resurrected. Hahahaha."
Just as Crouch expected, more than a dozen Aurors had already arrived in the deserted courtyard, in addition to Fudge, Dumbledore, Sebastian, and the anxious-looking Mia and Sirius.
"Minister," an Auror said solemnly, "there are traces of portkeys everywhere. It's hard to tell how Crouch got away."
"Then look for them one by one!" Fudge roared. "If you don't have enough people, call for people from the Ministry. I don't believe we can't find that bastard Crouch."
Then he looked at Dumbledore and his group and asked, "Please help us too. After all, we don't want to see anything happen to Harry Potter."
Seeing this, Sirius and Mia could no longer hold back and each picked a trail and chased after it.
Sebastian stopped Dumbledore from taking action and said, "Principal, why don't you go back to school first and leave this to me. You just subdued Karkaroff forcefully, and several headmasters are worried about their own safety. The school needs you to step in."
"Yes, Dumbledore," Fudge had a splitting headache. He was also shocked by Dumbledore's suppression of Karkaroff just now. "Why don't you go back to Hogwarts first, otherwise it will cause an international dispute."
"Okay," Dumbledore looked at Sebastian calmly, "I'll leave this to you then."
As he spoke, he grabbed Fox and disappeared in a flash of fire.
"Minister, we're in trouble!" An Auror appeared beside Fudge. "We found out that one of the people who was taken away by the portkey is a Muggle, but he seems to have been hungry for two days and is very weak. He also doesn't know what happened."
Hearing this, Fudge staggered.
Muggles are involved! With so many portkeys, how many Muggles must be involved? Damn Barty Crouch!
"Call the memory cancellation team here, they'll be busy today!"
"Minister, a Knight Bus has gone missing. The time of its disappearance is suspicious, and it was also this afternoon."
The information came in one after another, making Fudge dizzy.
"Go check! Where's Scrimgeour? Call him over too."
As soon as he finished speaking, another Auror appeared beside Fudge: "Minister, we found Crouch at Crouch's home, but he is dead."
"According to inference, he died this afternoon. In addition, there are signs of long-term abuse on his body, and a patch of hair is missing. We suspect that someone has been using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Mr. Crouch for a long time."
died?
Pretend?
This sentence contained so much information that Fudge felt dizzy.
So there was a Death Eater pretending to be Crouch and working at the Ministry of Magic? And this person also released the Dark Mark and rubbed the Ministry's face under his feet?
In the end, the savior was also kidnapped by this man!
If anything happens to the savior, then I, the minister...
Just thinking about this possibility, Fudge's face turned pale without a trace of blood.
"Sebastian," he pleaded tremblingly, "you must help. You are the most powerful here. You must find the savior and save him."
Sebastian nodded and whispered, "Apparition!"
After a moment of squeezing, he appeared in Little Hangleton.
However, to his surprise, under his magical perception, there was no movement at the cemetery in Little Hangleton.
He arrived at the cemetery and found that old Riddle's grave had been cracked and was in a mess, with only some broken bones left in it.
interesting......
The mysterious man did not choose to be reborn here.
Fortunately, I had other preparations, otherwise things would have been really bad.
On the other side, after the Knight Bus drove some distance, Little Barty took Harry off the bus and told the driver to continue driving the bus down.
He then created another portkey and took Harry to their final destination.